Steven Emerson in the Media

The Latest Homegrown Terror Plots

Fox News
October 28, 2010

http://www.steveemerson.com/8244/homegrown-terror-plots

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MARTHA MACCALLUM: Alright, for more now on the growing concern in this country of these kinds of home grown terror, counterterrorism kinds of attacks, counterterrorism expert joins me now, Steve Emerson. Steve, always good to see you, you are an expert on these things and we're glad to have you with us, welcome.

STEVE EMERSON: Thank you, Martha. I think we're seeing a rapid increase in the number of home grown plots. There was one in Hawaii, that was--whose indictment was released yesterday, a plot to carry out attacks against U.S. military. What was interesting about that plot, it was worked in concert with the NYPD and revolved mostly around 30 to 40 jihadist websites that were registered in the United States. The Washington plot is interesting because it's the first time the Washington Metro has been targeted, meaning that terrorists are now looking for softer targets.

MACCALLUM: Yeah, you know what interests me about this, obviously, this was a setup, they entrapped this guy, and were able to discover, you know, who he was talking to, but you say that in doing that, they have uncovered a wider plot. What kind of connections did they uncover that this man had and how—you know--everybody is worried about something like this happening in this country, and we've been told that the Al-Qaeda is working on this. But how do we know these people are connected to the people who might be trying to pull it off?

EMERSON: We don't know exactly. I've been in touch with law enforcement and intelligence officials and what they tell me is that, one, there are definitely others that will be arrested in connection with both plots, number one, and number two, we're seeing a dramatic increase in the evidence showing increased terrorist chatter, the number of terrorists who are moving back and forth between the United States and Pakistan, the number of terrorists being caught by our allies who are giving good, very detailed interrogations, and four, the fact is that we're seeing jihadist websites now suddenly emerge now as a principal vehicle for actually exchanging information and enlistment and recruitment. This is not something we really have seen before.

MACCALLUM: Alright, it's frightening. We've got to leave it there. Steve Emerson, thank you very much. And of course, all eyes on Anwar al-Awlaki and Adam Gadhan, both American citizens who are spurring people on to this kind of activity. We thank Steve Emerson for his time today.